Back-to-college 15in Notebooks

Group Test So the kids are off to university and you want to pack junior off with a decent machine for his or her studies - not to mention all the social facetweeting stuff the young uns like to do these days.

Or maybe you've got your loan through and you want to splash out on the machine Dad didn't buy you.

What better then than a mid-price Intel Core i - or AMD's equivalent, Phenom II - based 15.6in machine hardy enough to withstand the rigours of student life and still be up for a spot of gaming?

We asked six of the major notebook suppliers - Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba - to submit a machine for testing.

But before we get down to each machine individually, take a look at our Buyer's Guide, which will steer you through the choices and factors you'll need to consider when selecting a desktop-replacement notebook, whether it's one of those reviewed here or any of the many other such laptops on sale. ®